Getting Started
That's a bit of a misnomer since I started scribbling/writing/musing when I was 11 years old. But here I am now, many years later, with my first website and two books! How did that happen? I have to blame my sister, Patty Van Dyke. Blame in a good way. I had been dinking around with a longer version of the Natalia and the Monarch Rangers story for several years, working on it in fits and starts. Not really finishing it. During the pandemic Patty called me and said, "Hey - lets work on an illustrated children's book together. You can pull out the text from what you've already written and I'll do the illustrations!" I knew she could do the illustrations - she's been an artist, art therapist, and art teacher for many years. Could I simplify my long, convoluted, unfinished story into something shorter and simpler? To further complicate things, I live in Beaverton, Oregon and she lives in Ojai, California. We decided to give it a try, really enjoyed working on it together, and came up with an end result that we're very happy with - the Natalia and the Monarch Rangers illustrated children's book now available on Amazon. Big thanks to Patty for giving me a push!
The poetry collection, Ripples in the River, was a much simpler project. I'd already written the poems; just had to pull them together. My inner editor and critic suggested that I could go back, review all the poems and rewrite some of them, but I told him to be quiet and go away. I decided to just put them out there as written. Very interesting to look at something I'd written 50 years ago and just let it be. Yikes! That said, I'm happy with the collection and the way the book turned out.
Now, on to the next thing.
The poetry collection, Ripples in the River, was a much simpler project. I'd already written the poems; just had to pull them together. My inner editor and critic suggested that I could go back, review all the poems and rewrite some of them, but I told him to be quiet and go away. I decided to just put them out there as written. Very interesting to look at something I'd written 50 years ago and just let it be. Yikes! That said, I'm happy with the collection and the way the book turned out.
Now, on to the next thing.